Graduate Awards Program

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Graduate Awards Program

The University of Adelaide is pleased to announce that the Adelaide Graduate Award, is now open to all students currently enrolled at the University of Adelaide.

If you’re not familiar with the Award, the key components involve undertaking at least 150 hours of extra-curricular activities such as work experience (including paid work) and volunteering. Students will also attend workshops, develop their resume and prepare a reflection piece at the end of the program. Once completed, students get formal recognition of the Award added to their transcript.

Activities like coaching, umpiring, filling a Committee position and other volunteer roles that are filled at AU Sport Clubs are eligible to count toward the Award. Therefore, every University of Adelaide student who is involved with an AU Sport Club should look at getting involved. In 2017, AU Sport had two members achieve the award - Tania Zebian from AU Ultimate Frisbee Club and Oliver Sainsbury from the AU Basketball Club.

Oliver, who is now a Mechanical Design Engineer at Supashock, said "The Adelaide Graduate Award has helped me to realise skills that I have developed would be valuable to potential future employers. I took the role of Treasurer for the AU Basketball Club for three years, which was classified as an activity associated with the University Community. During this time, I developed and improved on a number of skills necessary in the workplace, including professional communication to a range of audiences, attention to detail in financial auditing, and planning for income and expenses. Being Treasurer also meant that I was part of the Executive Committee, and so we all worked as a team to achieve shared goals, like planning and running club events, and updating the club to a new name (The Blacks) complete with new uniforms. Participating in the Adelaide Graduate Award has taught me to reflect on what I have learned outside of the classroom, and how those lessons can benefit both myself and future employers. I am confident that the skills I have learned through my extracurricular activities will serve me well as a graduate engineer."

On reflection, Tania said "The opportunity to undertake the Adelaide Graduate Award (AGA) program whilst studying at the University of Adelaide has been an invaluable learning experience. One of the extra-curricular activities that I participated in across the AGA category of ‘Global, Cultural and Social’ was my position of Secretary at the AU Ultimate Frisbee Club. During this role, I worked collaboratively with the AUUFC board in conjunction with Adelaide University Sport to advocate for Ultimate Frisbee. As secretary, I developed my leadership, teamwork and initiative with organising monthly club meetings, planning agendas, and writing an annual report to the South Australian Flying Disc Association (SAFDA) of AUUFC’s amendments and achievements. From these experiences, my communication, academic writing, and problem-solving skills flourished as I became confident in adapting to complex situations (i.e. organising events within short notice). By being proactive in my role at the AUUFC and within the Ultimate community, not only has this contributed to achieving the award, but also it has extensively developed several transferable skills that will potentially enhance my employability prospects as a graduate teacher."

The Award is a great way for you to have your extra-curricular activities formally recognised and to learn how to showcase the employability skills that you gained through extra-curricular activities to potential employers.

If you are interested in the award, visit the Adelaide Graduate Award website to register for the award and sign up for one of the Introductory Workshops. Workshops start during the week of 5 March. You can sign up for the Award at any time, but any final year students should register now as they only have a limited time to complete the Award. Note that students can count hours they completed prior to registering for the Award, as long as they were enrolled in their current degree at the time and can provide evidence of their hours.